Debate's back on

Indeed, McCain claims to have won it already.

My prediction is that the debate will undergo a substantial change from what's anticipated. Again, following West Wing season 7, the candidates will agree to dispense with the format or make the debate solely about the current financial crisis. They will make this decision five minutes before the debate is set to begin and then inform the moderator of their decision.

I cannot understand her at all

Literally. What the hell is she saying?



Atrios points out that McCain has been speaking jibberish for years, but it's Washington-style jibberish, so it's okay. This may be true, but I can usually follow McCain from the beginning of a sentence to the end of one, even if the thought he's communicating isn't all that coherent. Palin is a different sort of incoherence. She's absoultely falling apart... in front of Katie Freakin' Couric.

I'll give her this: she makes Bush look presidential. And not a moment too soon.

Attack ad

If McCain has suspended his campaign, why did I just see a McCain attack ad on TV? And why was he attacking Obama on the financial crisis, the very subject that caused him to allegedly suspend his campaign?

Update: Ah, it's not just me. Suggested question for anyone who gets to talk to McCain today: "Senator, in what sense have you suspended your campaign?"

I've seen this episode before

Well, the president has called the two candidates vying to replace him into the Oval Office to discuss a national emergency. Normally, this sort of thing would concern me. However, I already saw this episode of "The West Wing."

VINICK: Do we have an estimate?

BARTLET: First twelve months: 70 billion.

VINICK: I can say goodbye to my tax cut. Your education plan is certainly off the table. What’s a victory in this?

Bartlet missed the current crisis by a factor of 10, but otherwise, pretty good. Either "The West Wing"'s writers were prophets, or reality is just getting lazy.

Extension?

This sounds about right.

On Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 12:00pm, John McCain wrote:

sorry to bother you and i know this request is late but i have been really busy and i want to call an emergency meeting with the president and understanding all the material is taking up a lot of my time so i find myself woefully underprepared and i am throwing myself on your mercy. can i get an extension over the weekend on the debate so i can present my best work to you? or should i get a dean’s excuse?

thanks,

john

Do not suspend this campaign

I'm pleased to see that Obama is largely rejecting McCain's plea to suspend his campaign. McCain's move clearly strikes some as smart politics, making him appear above the fray. Personally, the move strikes me as a pretty transparent political ploy to change the dynamics of a race that he's losing. I have a hard time buying the notion that 100 senators can solve our fiscal problems but 98 can't. I honestly don't know how this will end up shaking out politically (although early polls suggest voters aren't really buying McCain's argument). That said, I think it would be a bad move on many levels if both sides suspended their campaigns.

The philosophy behind McCain's move is that campaigns and elections are all good fun when things are going well for this country, but they're expendable when things get serious. It's part of a philosophy (which, as I recall from my earlier career, was much subscribed to inside the Beltway) that elections are a distraction from good government rather than the cause of them. I think that's exactly the wrong message to send. We had elections during the Great Depression, World War II, and the Civil War; we can handle a debate and some advertisements today.

I didn't have a problem with the GOP scaling back the first night of its convention because of the hurricane. Conventions are largely ceremonial today and can survive some scaling back. But debates are about the most important thing that the candidates do during the general election. This is actually how voters make an informed decision. They get to see how candidates think on their feet, how they behave when challenged, and how they propose to deal with the most pressing issues of the day. Having such a debate out in the open would be a fundamentally good thing. I would say that our nation would be much better off by watching these two debate each other than by having them join their 98 colleagues behind the Senate's closed doors.

McCain suspending campaign

My God, this is a weird election.

Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he would suspend campaigning on Thursday, and seek a delay in this week’s planned presidential debate, so that he could return to Washington to try to forge a consensus on a financial bailout package.

Shorter John McCain, via Sadly No:

Barack Obama needs to stop kicking my ass for the sake of national unity, my friends!